The Toy Car Project

By: Brendan Hillin, Alexander Arcasoy, and Tori Reich

Our Goal:
Create a toy car from recycled materials; in this case, the plastic from
water bottles.
Procedure
1. Set up the toaster oven outside. This avoids filling your house with the stench of melting plastic. Make sure
that the weather is fine, so that rain won't damage equipment or cause electrocution.
2. Wash the plastic bottles thoroughly using warm, soapy water and remove any labeling or packaging that is
not plastic. Throw this debris away.
3. Remove the caps from the plastic bottles and put these in the metal tin. Cut up the plastic bottles into small
pieces that fit inside the metal tin. Try and keep the pieces even, so that they melt at the same time.
4. Put the pieces of plastic in the metal tin. Do not pile the plastic higher than the edge of the tin.

Procedure II:
5. Switch the toaster oven on and heat it up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Put the metal tin on the
shelf in the oven. If the bottles do not melt at this temperature, turn the heater up.
6. Check after three minutes to see whether the plastic bottle pieces have melted. Use a hand
mitten or tongs to remove the metal tin from the oven. This is an important safety point to avoid
burning your hands or spilling hot plastic on your skin.
7. Replace the metal tin if the bottles are not yet melted. Keep checking on their progress until
the plastic has melted. Once you have finished, don't forget to turn the toaster oven off and return
it to the kitchen.



Plastic Water Bottles
Tin Can
Pliers
Grill
Saw
Hatchet
Sledgehammer
Wood
Materials
Melting Plastic
It took around fifteen
minutes for the plastic
to turn into liquid.
Carved out a large and deep box
to represent the body of the car
Carved out a small and less
wider box to represent hood of
the car
Making the Mold
A viscous, brown, odorous
liquid was recreated from the
burning of plastic scraps.
The Exchange
After a minute, the bubbling
stopped and the plastic liquid
became solid.
Solidification
Like Thwaites , the author in
our book who tried to make a
toaster from raw materials, our
mold shattered when we tried to
scrape it out.
The Removal
(unsuccess)
Works Cited:
Jones, Philippa. "How to Melt Plastic Bottles." Crafts. CreativeBug, n.d. Web. 04 June 2014.
<http://crafts.creativebug.com/melt-plastic-bottles-1769.html>.

Banthorp, George. "9 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water But One Reason Why It."
QuietEnvironmentalist 9 Reasons Not to Drink Bottled Water But One Reason Why Its Not so Bad for
the Environment Comments. Banthorp, n.d. Web. 05 June 2014.

"Nissan World Cars Photo Gallery - Pictures of Nissan Cars from around the Globe." About.com Cars.
N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2014.